BillsVet

I've always thought being a NFL HC is like being a fighter pilot during times of war. If you're not successful, you're shot down in short order. Jauron's career, by virtue of being hired by an octogenarian, was lengthened inexplicably beyond reason. I do believe DJ went 1-4 with Detroit following Mariucci's firing. Still, 7 out of 8 seasons without a winning season should not be rewarded, contract or not. One winning season in which he lost his only career playoff game. Only Bart Starr (.406), John McKay (.333 with the expansion Bucs), and Joe Kuharich (.417) have coached 130+ games with a worse winning percentage than DJ (.433). Norv is up there, but he's at least been to the AFC title game, which already out-does DJ.

I seriously believe RW has good days and bad. His reactions have run the gamut, from being angry after the Cleveland MNF loss to laughing after Miami last week. He made the point after the Miami game that the coaches don't make plays. But they are the ones calling them and their decisions have a lot to do with whether a play succeeds or fails. Outside of the Detroit Lions and Oakland Raiders, the Bills front office is the biggest joke in the NFL. No owner aside from those franchises is worse.

This coaching staff out-thinks itself on a weekly basis. Against the league's 31st ranked pass defense, they decided to throw short on every pass play. I'm glad they finally had a good outing from the OL, but it's clear to me that they coach scared. I realize TS didn't want to let JP open it up for fear of throwing a pick or 4, but the idea to throw short routes severely limits what the defense has to worry about. I'm willing to overlook a Lynch drop as long as he shows what he did today. He was all heart, which is more than can be said for the moribund HC.

Dean, your effort in defending DW is nice, but without foundation. They say you can judge a draft after three seasons. Even though DW was injured, his play wasn't spectacular or befitting an eighth overall pick at any time. I don't understand how a shoulder injury would inhibit his ability to cover a WR or TE. We can finally begin assessing the 06 draft, and as time wears on, realize how average it truly was. No significant starters on this team, with a bunch of safe picks who became below average to average NFL players. The problem with most Bills drafts (both TD's and ML's) is that they couldn't find playmakers. Rather than take a chance on a guy (Antonio Cromartie was an injured CB taken 19th in 06) Marv and Dick went with safe picks. The result is average players who don't distinguish themselves. It's why this team is worse now than it was in 06 with NC and LFB playing.

I'm amazed at how much WGR relies on young on-air talent. I'd expect more of their talent to have been in the business a bit more before moving to Buffalo. All in all, I like Simon for not being as obtuse as I'm sure they've asked Schopp and White to be. Apparently that gets ratings now, and so an element of that will be prominently featured. He's not perfect, but more enjoyable to listen to than any other talent WGR employs.

Unless you have a link, I'm not taking you at your word. Cap Figures 3/26/08 The Bills have cap space, and while this link is an estimate, I believe it's fairly obvious that Buffalo is not middle of the pack in cap dollars. And spare us the examples of misses in the draft. That's a yearly thing with this franchise, regardless of whether it's TD, Marv, Brandon, Ralphie, or whomever running this franchise. They're all incompetent.

No, fault the front office, specifically Russ Brandon for not knowing what the heck they're doing. You get what you pay for, both on and off the field. We are Detroit Lions east with a few more victories.

The anger is the result of 9 straight seasons without a playoff appearance and 13 years without a playoff win. I think those fans who are upset have a legitimate reason to be. Especially when the owner laughs after losses.

I don't know what Russ Brandon makes, but it's not enough if he has to market this team with DJ as HC next season. RW said the Toronto deal did not mean more would be spent on players. I wonder if it includes buying out coaches who are out-coached by rookie HC's and guys like Romeo Crennel. C2C is another PR scheme designed to make fans think the Bills are spending what other teams are. That's false, in that the only thing that matters is the salary cap itself. The cap hit is the only dollar amount that counts in the salary cap. Buffalo actually has 20-22M in the cap this season.

Mike Smith hired Mularkey. And so far it's been a good hire.

Floyd Reese has been trying to get GM jobs in Cleveland and before in Detroit these past few weeks. He's not the guy I want heading this organization from a football perspective. I don't want anything to do with him. The question remains: Just who would want to work for a 90 year old owner who doesn't seem to care anymore?

As I said in a previous post, just because TD didn't work out doesn't mean you don't attempt it again. Every team in the NFL has someone handling pro personnel and amateur scouting. And every team except one has someone with a football operations experience overseeing them. The lone exception is the Buffalo Bills. To think Russ Brandon is going to guide this front office and get the team to respectability is non-sense. I'm sure RB would tell you it's not his cup of tea. I say make RW makes RB president, leaving him to hire a GM. At that point, the new GM hires a coach, with consultation from above. I don't think that's unreasonable. For every TD there's a guy like Tom Dimitroff who did great things this off-season He hired Mike Smith, drafted well, and retained veterans like Lawyer Milloy, John Abraham, and Keith Brooking. He cleaned the team of guys like Crumpler and Deangelo Hall, but left enough for Smith to work with.

What this team needs most is a football man who has a track record of success. That person should be given authority over all football operations, without non football people like Wilson and Brandon interfering. It's a pipe dream as long as RW owns the team, but he's been swinging and missing quite a bit since BP left. If Brandon can't convince him to hire a real GM and they go with the amateurish setup they have now, I can't see them winning. That offering for a front office is unacceptable, just like DJ's coaching. My fear is RW won't hire another GM because TD didn't work out and alienated the fan base in the process. If Marty comes in a la Parcells in Miami, I wouldn't be averse to it. I don't think it'll happen, but what this team needs is someone to change the losing attitude. Marty could do that.

PFT on Jauron Florio isn't perfect, but it's reasonable to expect a move is made after the season. Jauron has lost this team, and even with one of the easiest schedules in the league, has floundered to a 6-7 record. What's most alarming amid all this talk of the coaches is the point Florio makes at the end of the article. Buffalo may elect to only hire a coach and get by with Guy, Modrak, and Brandon making the personnel moves. If that comes to pass, and we don't know at this point, it's confirmation that this franchise is a ship stranded in the ocean. I would think the lack of a veritable football man running football operations should be something they've learned from these past three seasons of Marv and Russ. Neither are/were qualified to handle personnel decisions.

Jim McNally was recognized as one of the finest OL coaches in the NFL. Even so, he couldn't get Langston Walker to move quicker laterally. He couldn't get Dockery to be more agile. He couldn't prevent Fowler and Preston from being pushed into the backfield on every down. Talent is what this team is in short of supply of at key positions. Good coaching can help make a bad player mediocre, but it can't make a mediocre player good. We're looking at an OL which cannot move well, which is a requirement to run block. In pass blocking, where people are generally holding their own, this OL isn't bad. It still doesn't make up for a lack of mobility.

It's ironic that many thought the Bills offense would improve by being a year older, while adding nothing but James Hardy. It was foolish to think a rookie HC taking the same guys who played under Fairchild along with a 2nd year QB would be successful. I need to see more from Edwards, but given the offenses he's been given, he's got time.

Fine post. Ralph decides how much money is enough, with input from CFO Jeff Littman. They've no doubt looked league wide and watched as the big markets made more. I'm sure they wanted more, and saw Toronto as an opportunity. RW explicitly said the new revenue would not translate into more spent on players. Buffalo already is in the lower eighth of the league in money spent on players, so it would seem RW's padding his bottom line. As the NFL becomes more corporate minded, it's the real fans who will suffer. Until something like perhaps a lockout occurs because the current CBA is terrible. At that point, the fans will go mad.

The NFL has become a stadium building organization. 25 of the 32 NFL clubs have built or refurbished a stadium by the end of 2010. Building stadiums increases debt to value ratios, but raise team values as well. With the NFL becoming more corporate than blue collar these past 10 years, franchises will be pushed to build a new field, either publicly or privately finanaced. Not all stadiums go in that range. Jerry Jones' palace going for 1B doesn't mean all new parks are as well.

Of course it was a huge mistake to fire Polian. I'll always maintain he is the finest GM in the modern era, because he was excellent before and after the salary cap. His departure stings even more when you consider Ralph favored his CFO over an unreplaceable BP. It's time though to move on. We can blame RW for getting rid of Saban, Knox, pushing Butler/Smith out the door, and other bad choices. But it's not going to make our current situation any better. Buffalo needs to find a guy like Polian was back around 1985. That is, someone who flies under the radar and knows the NFL well enough to find players. I'm very interested to see if RW will give Russ Brandon the leeway to do just that and rebuild this team into a winner. If that doesn't happen, nothing will change.

Forbes Bills Value 2008 That's patently false. Buffalo isn't the biggest market, but I'm tired of people throwing in the towel simply because of it. What Ralph did in Toronto was a money grab, although they sold it as something absolutely necessary to preserving the future of the team. This was a pathetic effort at soothing fans' concerns about losing a home game. Meanwhile, RW said it would not result in extra monies being devoted to players. If they're not using the new revenue on players or operating the team, how does it keep the team there? Everything this team is doing suggests they're making the team more attractive to a buyer. Their debt to value ratio is extremely low (11%) and expenses have been kept to a minimum. Having Toronto signed, sealed, and delivered makes the team even more attractive as the buyer will have a high debt to value ratio. Ralph's team increased in value last year 8% to an estimated 885M. Even in these uncertain economic times, that team will go for a minimum of 900M+ when it's put up. I'll be interested in how much the Rams get when they're sold. The final line of the text tells it all: "But when you're 90 years old and have no plans of selling the team, you probably don't give a damn." And after RW's reaction to the Miami game, I don't think RW cares about anything but ensuring his family gets the most they can.

DH67, You've started several topics of late. I appreciate your optimism, but these statements are as vanilla as DJ's gameplans. The team has several holes to fill, most notably at C, G, RT, DE, OLB, FS (EDIT: assuming Whitner does not move) TE, DT, and certainly coaching. The situation is much worse than most realize. For example, the Bills went 7-9 in 2006 with one of the hardest schedules in the league. This season with one of the easiest, they're 6-7. That's not good, no matter how you spin it. Coaching and players are part of it. But the people who find those parts are woefully inept. A complete house cleaning is in order, no matter how optimistic an opinion one has.

Awesome SB. In my text message from the Bills, he had 1 sack and 32 tackles in those 4+ games. If that's a legitimate excuse, then so is losing Reed for a few weeks.

Please do not make that statement. Jauron's got his guys so inspired that they might go out and lay an ofer. As in 0-5 the last five games of the season. 5-1 to potentially 6-10...amazing. The Bills have a habit of leading you up the mountain and dropping you off. Whether it's 04 and winning 8 of 9 in a row and then losing to Pittsburgh's 3rd stringers or this year starting 5-1 and still missing the playoffs. Buffalo finds new ways each season to lose games and blow chances at the playoffs.

Wade was the beneficiary of the last Polian remnants and a few John Butler hits (R. Brown, Moulds, Wiley) and of course the play of Flutie. His performance in Dallas should demonstrate his teams win in spite of and not because of his coaching. Although I'd freely admit he's the best coach since Levy. It's not saying much, but he's at least a better defensive coach than Williams and Jauron. Marv's tenure as GM was something that never should have happened. He was not, nor is he, suited for the position and it speaks to RW's lack of understanding about how a front office operates that he was hired. Ralph has no long term plans, and he's content to sit at the top and collect the cash. He no longer cares. The difference between now and right after Donahoe was that at that point, RW was just looking to retain the fan base with a PR move in hiring Marv.

Press Twenty-Eight for Leodis McKelvin The kid seems like someone who could be a playmaker. His english leaves me looking like Dick Jauron on a challenge though.